Nostalgia……

I’ve told my girls that I have to be “inspired” to write my blogs, and this one is no different.  All happening from a thank you note from a special granddaughter thanking me for my  college graduation gift.  She said, in part, that my gift of an antique violet celery dish and salt saucers took her back to a memory of her own.  She said that in furnishing her doll house, she bought little violet dishes because it reminded her of me. That was her gift back to me!!

I don’t know if it is the aging process or some need to enhance the memory of a grandmother, but I have found in sharing a bit of my past and Bill’s past with our grandchildren has given me untold joy.  So passing on antique guns, sportsmanship plaques, high school and college rings, antique violet dishes, and charm bracelets seem to satisfy some primal need in me by saying, without words, this is who we were.

I have never been one to glorify the past by thinking nothing or no one can possibly be as great as we were, but recently, with a drive to Asheville with a nine year old granddaughter who hungered for stories of her family, told me that the new generation desires to hear that past…both good and painful.  A recent family reunion, again, told me how we long to connect with those who laid down the foundation for who we are today.

As Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher once wrote, “Life can only be understood backwards, but must be lived forwards.”  I hope that my sharing stories, tokens, and time may be the bricks my grandchildren build upon for their exciting futures.